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This page
was written to assist historians understand the Eastern European
Business Directory Project. Tens of thousands of pages covering early
Eastern European commercial entities are available and hopefully in
the future, these documents will be scanned and available for
researchers. This project was before the Internet.
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During the hectic transition period between 1989 and 1992, with the
fall of communism, that was so repressive for the people in the East,
it was hoped that by having mutually beneficial trade, that the East
and West would be able to work together, share knowledge and create a
peaceful better world. This was before the internet existed and so
there were many propaganda misconceptions about the East as well as
the West. The project was the brain child of Frank X. Didik and
ultimately cataloged and shared information on over 128,000
scientific, industrial, business and trade entities in the East.
With the
collapse of communism in Eastern Europe in December 1989 and the
initial euphoria which followed, few western business people, or even
western government trade offices, for that matter, had any idea of
what was manufactured or produced in Eastern Europe, nor did key
westerners realize the technologies and advancements that were
potentially available in almost all fields. At that time, the term
"Eastern Europe" also included the European based republics
of the former Soviet Union, as well as the then "East
Germany" (Democratic Republic of Germany or DDR). By early 1993,
the understanding of the term "Eastern Europe" no longer
included the European countries of the former Soviet Union and did
not included the former Eastern Germany, which by then was
incorporated/merged into the expanded Federal Republic of Germany. As
of this writing, the term Eastern Europe now indeed does include many
of the former republics of the Soviet Union, though often Russia is
not included in that understanding of the term, while countries such
as the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and others are presently
considered "Central Europe". It is possible that in the
future, this will represent a constant confusion among historians to
understand the what country was considered where, at any given time.
In an
effort to enhance mutually beneficial trade, the distinguished
Eastern European Business Database project was developed by Frank X.
Didik of New York City. Over 2000 trade bureaus, government offices,
municipalities and others agreed to participated and supplied vital
industrial information to be incorporated into the primary book and,
later, the CD-Rom's which were produced that contained over 128,000
entities and vastly more information than what could be contained in
the 2,000 page directory. As a result of this project, the Eastern
European Business Directory was published in the United States and
England and elsewhere by Gale Research, which was at the time, one of
the largest business book publishers. The Eastern European Business
Directory was the very first comprehensive directory covering every
major and significant Eastern European factory, businesses and
industrial and commercial enterprises.
At the time
when this massive project was first published in late 1990, it was
the only such comprehensive source available and as such libraries,
corporations, government agencies and key investors world wide,
quickly snapped up the Eastern European Business Directory. It was
distributed by many distinguished organizations including the United
States Department of Commerce and others world wide. Today, the
Eastern European Business Directory can be found in almost every
major library, corporation, embassy and government trade office world
wide. To enhance mutually beneficial trade, other trade directories
covering the west were written and compiled by Frank X. Didik and
published in several countries including Poland, former
Czechoslovakia, and Hungary.
The project was successful in many ways, though the hope of
universal peace was shattered by local regional wars, cultural
differences, financial greed and short sightedness of some leaders in
both the East and the west. To some degree, what happened was a lost opportunity.
For additional information on a wide array of Frank X. Didik
development projects, including such areas as solar and electric
powered cars, stereo 3D television, stereographic printing, medical
devices, infrastructure devices, Trans-Global Highway and others,
please go to www.DIDIK.com
or www.FrankDidik.com.
You may also contact Frank Didik at eebd@didik.com or inq@didik.com.
Thank
you for your time and interest. |
